My PhD connects the mechanics of elastic waves with the design of materials: how magnetic fields tune waves in active polymers, which models describe that honestly, and how architected lattices absorb and dissipate energy.
Wave Mechanics and Metamaterials Laboratory, Technion, since 2023, with Dr. Pavel Galich.
Starting from an enriched magnetoelastic energy, I derived closed-form speeds for longitudinal and shear waves in compressible magneto-active polymers. Without pre-deformation, only one mode responds to the field: the shear wave polarised along it. Ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements on 3D-printed iron–PLA under fields up to 1.6 T confirmed exactly that selectivity.
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 2025. Article
I formulated the Rayleigh surface-wave problem for a magneto-active half-space under magnetic fields parallel and perpendicular to its surface. The formulation recovers the classical Rayleigh equation without a field, and shows how the surface wave's speed and depth of penetration respond to the field.
Advances in Applied Mechanics, 2026, in press. Article
Matching a measured magnetic permeability is not enough to fix a magnetoelastic model. Unless the coefficients also recover the Maxwell stress of the undeformed material, the predicted stresses can exceed the material's strength many times over, and the predicted waves soften toward instabilities that experiments do not show. I proposed Maxwell-stress consistency as a selection criterion.
Talk at ICME 2026, Technion; part of the Advances in Applied Mechanics article.
Re-entrant auxetic lattices absorb energy by collapsing their cells. I showed with analytical models, COMSOL simulations and experiments that adding friction and confining the lattice in a tailored matrix improves both the energy it absorbs and the energy it dissipates.
Manuscript under review.
Early in the PhD I designed a unit cell that combines bistable arches into a structure with several stable states, a route to shape-changing and energy-trapping metamaterials.
Talk at IACAS-63, Technion, 2024.
In industry I built finite-element procedures for two-wheeler and truck-bus radial tyres and validated them against experiments. Two studies came out of that work: on ply bulge failures, and on symmetric belt laminates that reduce belt-edge separation. Both are listed under Publications.
Three questions, each pointing toward a component.
Can field-responsive materials inside architected cells give compact, tunable attenuation below a few hundred hertz?
How can lattices dissipate energy again and again, for damping, isolation and impact, including in high-temperature alloys?
How light can an isolator for a seeker, cryocooler or navigation unit become while still surviving launch and shock?
